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Former Gov. George E. Pataki is honored during an opening ceremony for the Pataki Center on Wednesday\u00a0on Spring Street in Albany. The center, which features mementos and legislation from his time in office, is housed in a building behind state GOP headquarters on State Street. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Former Gov. George E. Pataki, center right, is joined by former Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, center left, during an opening ceremony for the Pataki Center on Wednesday\u00a0in Albany.\u00a0(Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Former Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings praises former Gov. George E. Pataki during an opening ceremony for the Pataki Center,\u00a0which features mementos and legislation from Pataki\u2019s time in office. (Will\u00a0Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Former Gov. George E. Pataki is honored during an opening ceremony for the Pataki Center. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Legislation signed by former Gov. George E. Pataki is displayed inside the new Pataki Center in Albany. (Will\u00a0Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
A portrait of former Gov. George E. Pataki hangs inside the\u00a0Pataki Center on Wednesday\u00a0in Albany. The center, which features mementos and legislation from his time in office, is housed in a building behind state GOP headquarters on State Street. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Former Gov. George Pataki is honored during the opening ceremony for the Pataki Center on\u00a0Spring Street in Albany.\u00a0(Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Former Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, right, praises former Gov. George E. Pataki, left, during ceremony for the opening of\u00a0the Pataki Center, which is\u00a0housed in a building behind state GOP headquarters on State Street. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
ALBANY \u2014 When former\u00a0Gov. George E. Pataki first traveled to Albany for work in 1975, he fell in love with the city that would eventually become his second home during his three terms in office.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen everybody was staying out on Wolf Road, I stayed at the Wellington,\u201d Pataki said Wednesday, referring to the downtown hotel that was demolished in 2014.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s part of why he decided to locate a new center with his namesake in the city of Albany, Pataki said. He wanted it to be housed in the city that defined some of his life\u2019s most significant moments.<\/p>\n
It was either that or his hometown, Peekskill, where he served as mayor for four years before he was elected to the state Legislature in 1984.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took a hard look and we figured Peekskill is too expensive,\u201d Pataki joked in Albany on Wednesday, during a ceremony celebrating the opening of\u00a0the Governor George Pataki Center, which will serve two functions.<\/p>\n
It will be a place where young people can seek mentorship on work in government and politics, Pataki said. He views that as essential in a world in which civic engagement isn\u2019t always as strong with younger generations.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think it\u2019s incumbent on those of us who care about government and politics to try to encourage people to do that,\u201d Pataki said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also filled with memorabilia documenting some of Pataki\u2019s most significant moments in public office, including his time as governor during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That\u2019s part of what prompted the center.<\/p>\n
Pataki said on the anniversary of the attacks the year after he left office, he was spending time with some of his former staff. They decided to gather each year on the anniversary to remember what they experienced together.<\/p>\n
That became an occasion to give out awards to recognize their past work and, eventually, the idea of the center sprung up.<\/p>\n
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It wasn\u2019t a partisan event. While Pataki was joined by some of his former top staff, like David Catalfamo, who handled his communications, other Republicans attended as well, including Troy Mayor Carmella R. Mantello and Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh.<\/p>\n
Catalfamo recalled how Pataki would often join his staff out for drinks after a long day.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, the governor probably had better places and better people he could hang out with,\u201d Catalfamo said, to which Pataki joked: \u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several Democrats were there, too, including Assemblyman John T. McDonald III and former Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, who had a close enough relationship with Pataki that he endorsed him over his party\u2019s nominee in 2002.<\/p>\n
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That was a change from when Pataki was seeking his first term as governor in 1994. Jennings endorsed the incumbent Democrat, Gov. Mario Cuomo, at the time.<\/p>\n
After Pataki won, Jennings said that he panicked over what his relationship would be like with the man he had bet against. He called Pataki after he took office and asked to meet so he could smooth things over.<\/p>\n
It turned out, Jennings said, that Pataki hadn\u2019t planned to hold it against him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always accessible,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cHe was always caring about this city. I could call him 24 hours a day, anywhere, any time of the day and talk to him about some of the problems we\u2019re faced with (or) the state was faced with.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Even top staff for Gov. Kathy Hochul attended the event, including state Budget Director Blake Washington and Karen Persichilli Keogh, secretary to the governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs governor, you built a foundation for this state that we continue to benefit from,\u201d Keogh said.<\/p>\n
The center, itself, is relatively small, with an open space downstairs lined with framed bills signed by Pataki when he was in office. Upstairs, there\u2019s a sitting area, bathroom, kitchen and office with archival material.<\/p>\n
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But despite now having a building dedicated to it, Pataki said his legacy is something that hadn\u2019t crossed his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never worried or thought about it,\u201d Pataki said. \u201cIf the legacy is, \u2018he left the same better than when he got there,\u2019 that\u2019s fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Gov. George E. Pataki is honored during an opening ceremony for the Pataki Center on Wednesday\u00a0on Spring…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":983201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[342144,5229,454,275397,425,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,290,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-983200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-alco","tag-america","tag-government","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-state","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117045226976758501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}